Method of maintaining characteristics information about a system component either modified by an application program or a user initiated change

Abstract

An operating system provides a number of window elements that the operating system itself or applications may use in displaying a window. The operating system includes a dialog box for enabling a user to adjust the individual sizes of the respective window elements independently of the size of the window. The bitmaps for the window elements are stored in a cache that is re-drawn each time the user changes the size of any of the window elements.

I claim:  
     
       1. In a computer system having an output device and processor for running an operating system having a graphical user interface and an application program wherein the application program and the graphical user interface output window elements that are based on a visual representation of the window elements provided by the operating system, a method comprising the computer-implement steps of: 
       maintaining information by the operating system about the metric characteristics of a specific window element provided by the operating system independent of other window elements provided by the operating system;  
       outputting by the application program and the graphical user interface, the specific window element provided by the operating system, wherein the output it uniformly based solely on the information maintained by the operating system about the metric characteristics of the specific window element provided by the operating system;  
       providing a function in the operating system for obtaining the information that is maintained about the metric characteristics of the specific window element provided by the operating system; and  
       calling the operating system function by the application program and the graphical user interface of the operating system to obtain the information maintained about the metric characteristics of the specific window element provided by the operating system.  
     
     
       2. The method of claim  1  wherein the specific window element is a scroll bar. 
     
     
       3. The method of claim  2  wherein the information includes dimensional information about the dimensions of the scroll bar. 
     
     
       4. The method of claim  2  wherein the information includes information about the position of a thumb on the scroll bar. 
     
     
       5. The method of claim  1  wherein the information maintained about the metric characteristics of a specific window element independent of other window elements provided by the operating system is stored in a cache. 
     
     
       6. The method of claim  5  wherein the cache is a bitmap cache. 
     
     
       7. The method of claim  6  wherein the specific window element is stored as a bitmap in the bitmap cache. 
     
     
       8. The method of claim  7  wherein the specific window element is a scroll bar. 
     
     
       9. The method of claim  8  wherein the information includes dimensional information about the dimensions of the scroll bar. 
     
     
       10. The method of claim  8  wherein the information includes information about the position of a thumb on the scroll bar. 
     
     
       11. A computer-readable medium containing computer-implementable instructions for carrying out the method of any one of claims  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 , or  10 . 
     
     
       12. In a computer system having an output device and processor for running an operating system having a graphical user interface and an application program, a method comprising computer-implement steps of: 
       storing information by the operating system about system metrics that specific information about certain system components, including information about the size of selected system-provided window elements independent of the size of other system-provided window elements;  
       outputting by the application program and the graphical user interface the selected system-provided window elements uniformly based solely on the information stored by the operating system about the system metrics of the selected system-provided window element;  
       providing a function in the operating system for accessing the system metrics on behalf of the application program and the graphical user interface; and  
       calling the function by the application program and the graphical user interface.  
     
     
       13. The method of claim  12  wherein the function sets a value of the system metrics of a least one of the window elements independent of the system metrics of the other window elements. 
     
     
       14. The method of claim  12  wherein the function includes an interface that allows a user to initiate system metric changes for window elements not integrated into the application program. 
     
     
       15. The method of claim  12  wherein system metrics that specify information about certain system components are stored in a cache. 
     
     
       16. The method of claim  15  wherein the cache is a bitmap cache. 
     
     
       17. The method of claim  15  wherein certain system components are stored as bitmaps. 
     
     
       18. The method of claim  17  wherein the function sets a value of the system metrics. 
     
     
       19. The method of claim  17  wherein the function includes an interface that allows a user to initiate system metric changes for window elements not integrated into the application program. 
     
     
       20. A computer-readable medium containing computer-implementable instructions for carrying out the method of any one of claims  12 ,  13 ,  14 ,  15 ,  16 ,  17 ,  18 , or  19 .